This is my *very first* interview as a writer-director, and 😮💨😮💨😮💨….
I really like the writer whose podcast this is, so when she asked me for an interview I jumped to do it. But then, I thought ‘Wait a minute… do I know how to do an interview?”
Well, it’s done now. In the end it was like just talking with a young friend.
Still, maybe I shoulda been more formal.
Why not? Something to do.
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Screen Craft Details:
Regular entries are due by December 30, 2015, with regular application fee of $59. Late entries must be received before the final deadline on January 15th (at 11:59PM Pacific Time) with application fee of $69.
The application fee must be paid in full at the time of the application submission. The application fee is non-refundable.
It is strongly recommended that material be registered with the WGA and or the US Copyright Office.
Applicants are not required to live in or relocate to Los Angeles but must be readily accessible via phone, email and Skype for meetings at the conclusion of the Fellowship.
All material must be submitted in PDF format or it will not be eligible.
The top finalists will be notified and invited to join a phone interview for the final selection process.
Between 2 and 4 recipients will be awarded (at the sole discretion of ScreenCraft and jury). The selected Fellowship recipients will be notified by e-mail on or about March 1st, 2016.
Finalists may be required to submit additional material and sign and return within five (5) business days of receipt a notarized Affidavit of Eligibility and a Release and any other documents that ScreenCraft or any other partner may require before receiving the award.
Failure to respond to the initial notification within ten (10) days or return of notification will result in disqualification.
ScreenCraft reserves the right to amend these rules at any time. Entrants may be required to submit further information to assist in the judges’ verification of eligibility. Any entrant may be deemed ineligible at the sole discretion of ScreenCraft.
“Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously. … Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them.” — Edwidge Danticat
…is simply one that has been shown to them, time and time again, by those who wouldn’t know how to raise the bar, push it or take the damn bar out of there. So filmmaker becomes synonymous with white, male, hetero, American, subconsciously.
It’s called imprinting.
I’m not really offended by it anymore, it’s just what I have to deal with, when I say I’m a writer- director. Maybe not within the particularly visionary community on WP, but offline, and out in the world.
People either picture some bad television pilot with sucky jokes or Tyler Perry (and that’s coming from the generous bunch). Most people can’t even remember who the female directors are, beyond Nora Ephron and Kathryn Bigelow.
And those gals are white, so we’re back to the picture-I-don’t-fit again.
Even though, there are many black women directors. Many.
But, marginalization whether unconscious or conscious is something I live with everyday and on every level. So the emergence of it doesn’t get me down. I’m a black woman, so that means I’m a hyper sex kitten who always wants it or the asexual momma to the world, nurturer of the universe or badass off course. Nurse, counselor, teacher, secretary, insert any other profession people deem ‘safe’ or ‘reachable.’
Abstract artist, technician, business woman.
And that’s the direction I’m traveling, so fitting pictures or not…. 
I’ve collected a pile of experiences, insights and ideas I want to execute plus have the unique ability to get along with people so well, near every woman thinks I’m sort of a sister while an equal amount of men think I must want them. Yep you get along with them too well, you’re ready to jump their bones. Quite a funny assumption to see unfolding.
Anyway I hope to have changed quite a few views at the end of this, and on more than one level.
No asexuality, frozen heart, or visible crushes here…and I’m probably not going to be a medical technician. Though props to all of em’ everywhere.
The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly (Based on Jean-Dominique Bauby) <—PDF of Script.
Jean-Dominique Bauby was a well-known French journalist, author and editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE.
On 8 December 1995 at the age of 43, Bauby suffered a massive stroke. When he woke up twenty days later, he found he was entirely speechless; he could only blink his left eyelid. Called locked-in syndrome, a condition where the mental faculties remain intact but most of the body is paralyzed. In Bauby’s case his mouth, arms, and legs were paralyzed, and he lost 60 pounds (27 kg) in the first 20 weeks after his stroke. Despite his condition, he wrote the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking when the correct letter was reached by a person slowly reciting the alphabet.
In 2007, painter-director Julian Schnabel released a film version of it. This is the screenplay, and it is another beautifully written – adaptation this time. The “script,” just took my breath away. What I’m getting as time goes on, from reading these rather gutsy, heart-filled, more perceptive than is sane, writers’… is…. this….
Ya better get in life, live it, let everything hit you and work on you. Feel every, any emotion, let the sun burn. Because…..it’s the only way you are going to have anything substantial to say and a way to say it that has substance.
Screenwriters (when they’re good) are the absolute kahuna in the room. And if I never make another film, there I said it.
So for every production person, producer, or actor that thinks they’re not? You’re kidding yourself.
This adaptation is so good, it could be framed.
I just saw the damn film.
Brilliant work Ronald.
(I’m waiting for the lion too.) <——–PDF here.
I read alot of screenplays. But not just because I have to. I love screenwriters. I love the art and I think it’s an art – just like poetry, novel-writing, or journalism (when it’s good).
If you read this script, you’ll see what I mean. Suddenly you’re feeling something for these people who don’t exist, and worried about their futures, as if that future were real beyond the screenplay. That to me is a good writer, and this guy is great.
He’s…..GREAT.
So great, I want a moment of silence right now for him. I appreciate it so much, and though it’s what I do too, it’s my guilty pleasure. So when these guys are good? I’m in heaven.
Just be warned, this guy is goin’ to the pit of your belly, and you will not finish, untouched….
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Writer – Mike Mills
Company – Focus Features
All my life, this, just going for it has gotten me into trouble. Trouble. Trouble. Trouble. Trouble.
BUT it’s refreshing to know of one place where going for it, as big as you can, can be a good, even completely great thing. In film.
I’ve learned over the years to tuck, hide, shirk, mask, refrain, basically keep myself out of trouble. I’ve gotten pretty good at it. But in my writing, in my filmmaking, the ice is melting. The cage door drifting…open.
I’m still in it…liking the peace I’ve been able to create for my parents. But….I feel like I have one foot out, and it’s time to get the other out.
Move beyond my safe haven.
And it’s scary, but I know it’s time. For the people (aside from my mom/dad) who capture my heart. For the people whose stories need screen time, for empowering narratives giving way to stereotype, for myth and realities unexplored.
But I am slow.
However….today…I saw a film that basically said…MOVE A LITTLE FASTER.
A brilliant, epic, film, with so much heart it steals your gasp away.
Theme song:
This is an interview with Shawn Lawrence Otto, the gentleman who adapted a novel written by Andre Dubus III (he and the director did together).
I thought it was an interesting watch because I admire the amount of emotion they were able to recreate in the writing and there is alot of great stuff said here.
So, if you’re a writer — you may really enjoy this one.
Do you want to hang out with someone who has the most obvious reaction to everything that happens? That’s boring! And when I see a movie that’s doing the obvious thing all the time, it’s frustrating.
~Steven Soderbergh
Archaic Sugar 
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